Plants and seedlings are usually grown in a suitable nursery container or pot for sufficient time for the plant to reach the desired size for marketing. The plants are then transported in the original container to a retail outlet for sale to the ultimate consumer. Plants that are sold through retail outlets and stores usually require suitable labels or tags to enable the purchaser to identify the plant variety as well as the price of the plant. The typical method of providing some form of identification of the plant is a stake or tag inserted into the soil. The stake generally includes a brief description of the plant as well as planting and care instructions and a price or price code. Examples of stakes for inserting in the soil are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,768 to Tesselaar et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,107 to Doerr, U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,943 to Schlicter and U.S. Pat. No. 227,658 to Schultz. The use of stakes which are inserted into the soil have the disadvantage of being easily separated from the plant and container during shipping and handling. This prevents the consumer from identifying the plant and cost of the plant.
Another disadvantage of the use of stakes for identifying plants is the high occurrence of purchasers intentionally replacing the stake or other tag with the stake or tag from another plant of lower cost.
Various efforts have been proposed to overcome the disadvantages of the use of the stakes inserted into the soil to identify the plants. For example, tags can be attached to the plant or the nursery container by a suitable fastener such as staples, rings and bands. The tags attached by these fasteners are usually difficult and more time consuming to attach than stakes inserted into the soil, thereby increasing labor costs. In addition, the tags are often more expensive to produce and can result in damage to the plant when attached or when the tag is removed.
Another form of device for identifying the plant within a container includes the use of labels applied with an adhesive. An example of such containers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,796 to Nathan. These containers have the disadvantage of being labor intensive to apply the labels. In addition, the adhesive labels are not always waterproof or weatherproof, require a clean surface to adhere properly, and can be peeled from one container and applied to another. Injection molded containers have also been manufactured with a receptacle for attaching to a tag.
Accordingly, a continuing need exists for an improved nursery container and labeling device.